The new force will combine the tasks of anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence as well as exercising early-warning duties, and it will also be responsible for space monitoring, its newly-appointed commander Victor Bondarev said.

The creation of the Airspace Force would neutralise the capabilities of the US to conduct first strike.

Russian Airspace Defence Force was created in December 2011. In December 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to launch the airspace force by mid-2015.